The child continued to loiter on the porch, not listening to Skylar. He just wanted a closer look at her. He pulled himself away from the truck and started towards the porch.
“Where do you think you are going?” Skylar asked. She was following him. He could hear her footsteps behind him. “In the house Ava,” she shouted.
He stopped and turned on her. “Why don’t you want me to see your daughter, Skylar?”
Her eyes instantly dropped to the ground. She wouldn’t or couldn’t meet his eyes. Luka turned on his heel and strode across the yard to the porch. His gait was a hell of a lot longer than Skylar’s but right now she wasn’t even following him.
In his gut he knew what he would find when he saw the little girl up close. That thought twisted his gut. He took the steps two at a time and stood before the child Skylar had called Ava.
She smiled at him. “I’m Ava,” she said.
“I’m Luka,” he told her.
He cupped her chin in his big hand and tipped her face up to his. Luka studied Ava’s delicate features. The longer he looked at her the more he saw himself in her. Those were definitely his eyes, dammit. His head snapped around to look at Skylar but she had her back to them still.
“Where’s your Daddy?” He asked softly.
“I don’t have a Daddy.”
He nodded. She had a daddy all right but he had never been told about his daughter. “Go in the house like your Momma said,” Luka told her trying to keep his voice pleasant even though the furies of hell were taking over his temper right now. “Please,” he added.
He watched as Ava slipped through the old screen door. She turned and looked up at him and smiled. He almost gasped out loud. The last time he had seen Skylar she was looking at him in the exact same way, through the screen, like he was her hero. Then Ava walked away into a room in the house where he couldn’t see her and his emotions went cold.
Luke stood there for a moment gathering his thoughts. Stamping down his rage that Skylar had given birth to their daughter and hadn’t told him. His mother knew how to get a hold of him. Hell, Haley Cove was small. His family had to know about Ava and they hadn’t told him either.
His boots made a heavy noise across the porch as he went down the steps. She had to know that he was approaching and he was furious. Maybe Skylar just didn’t give a damn since she was coldhearted enough to keep his kid away from him for ten fucking years.
**
Luka knew.
A secret they had kept from him for ten years. The truth was in the open finally. He had a daughter but Skylar didn’t feel better about it. She hadn’t felt well since she realized who was getting out of that big, expensive truck sitting in her drive.
He had not changed. The years had actually been kinder to him. Granted Luka had filled out. And oh boy he had filled out well. Broad shoulders, a chest that was cut. Biceps that were solid and tempting. He was still narrow at the waist and hips. Thick, muscular thighs. She bet his ass was still as beautiful as it had been at nineteen.
Her breath caught in her chest at the sight of his body now that of a man not the gangly, teenager who had left her. His hair was long. Longer than she had ever seen him wear it. His skin was tan and his lower face covered in whiskers that made him that much more appealing.
He still had that charm but now he had oodles of roguish appeal to add to him. He was a bad boy her mother had warned her about. He always had been and now…he was a hundred times worse and a detriment to her wellbeing.
Skylar waited. She knew if he looked into Ava’s eyes, his e
yes; Luka would know the truth. She was his daughter too. She was pretty much his mirror image at ten according to Luka’s mother. She was the only grandmother that Ava had and Luna Shaw saw her on a regular basis.
It had been tough on the Shaw family. Skylar had refused to allow them to tell Luka that she was pregnant. She was just sixteen when he left her alone, pregnant with Ava. In his defense he hadn’t known. It didn’t excuse the fact the coward just up and left her in the middle of the night without even saying goodbye.
Skylar had her pride after all. If Luka Shaw didn’t want her then he wouldn’t want her child either, she had reasoned at the time. So hesitantly, no more than that, with great reluctance and a lot of cursing his brothers had agreed to not tell him about Ava. His mother had always left it up to her.
She could feel him standing behind her now. Her body was tingling with awareness and Skylar cursed it for betraying her. Luka still affected her. He said not a word to her. Not one word.
Skylar was starting to get nervous. She folded her arms under her breasts and held on tight. That was the only thing holding her together at the moment. “I’m going to ask you once and I want the god damned truth, Skylar,” he finally said.
Her hands trembled when she dropped them to her sides. “Whose child is Ava?”
“Mine,” she replied instantly. She heard his snort of derision.
“Let’s try this again,” he growled at her. “Who is Ava’s father?”
She started playing with the tail of her braid. It felt too tight giving her a headache. Skylar pulled the tie out of her hair and ran her fingers through her massively thick hair. “You know who Ava’s father is,” she told him. Her voice so soft he could barely hear her. “She has his eyes.”